Lecrae's Deconstruction

Introduction and Purpose of the Program

Welcome to Trulogy, where we study Christian theology, philosophy, and apologetics. We do critiques on scholars, politics. We look into events in both classical and modern-day issues. We do interviews, debates, and much more.

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My name is Belushi Prevalon, coming to you from the Boston area. Right now, you are listening to Trulogy,.

The study of the truth, as it is in Jesus.

Host Introduction, Platforms, and the Lecrae Critique

Well, amen. Thank you so much for tuning in to Trulogy. My name is Belushi Prevalon. I am your host. You can find me on YouTube at Trulogy or by typing in DrBlueTheTruologist. I'm available also on Instagram at StudyOfTheTruth.

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Sometimes I put a little bit of a poll there where I list out several ideas for our next episode, and you can participate by voting on Spotify for what we will be discussing next. On X, I'm available at Bprevalon.

That's B-P-R-E-V-I-L-O-N. Bprevalon on X. On today's episode of Trulogy, we will be critiquing Lecrae. And I felt led to do this because in my past, I used to be a rapper like Lecrae is a rapper.

And if you didn't know that, well, now you know because from 2012 to the early part of 2020, I was a rapper. I got saved in October of 2018, and I stopped swearing. I stopped using profanity in my rap music.

And eventually, I started making more Christian-style music with Christian lyrics and Christian connotations and things like that. And eventually, God called me to the ministry, and I felt like I could no longer do rap music, so I personally was convicted to kind of give it up for the glory of God, and I walked away from it.

And during the time when I was a Christian rapper, I was influenced by Lecrae, who was a successful Christian rapper. And I looked to him because he was very popular, he made really good music, and I felt a genuine connection with him.

But ultimately, it wasn't... I felt led to leave rap altogether, so I really didn't care about hip-hop in general. So yeah, that's just a little bit about my past, but in case you don't know who Lecrae is, he is, as I said, a successful Christian rapper.

He has notably said himself that he doesn't really make Christian rap music, he's just a Christian who makes rap music. His initial conversion came by the preaching of Pastor James White. And no, this is not the dividing line, James White, nor is it the Apologia Church, James White.

This is James A. White, who is the senior pastor at Christ Our King Community Church. He is a professor at Southeastern Seminary, where he teaches a class on social justice and race. Already we can tell a little bit about him there.

He is highly sought out as a consultant. He's a speaker and facilitator of several organizations and companies on issues relating to inclusion, equity, diversity, yada, yada, yada. Just a little bit of background of who converted Lecrae initially is this man.

So that just gives us a little bit of an insight where we're going here. Lecrae was influenced for some time by a Christian hip-hop group called The Cross Movement, who I believe he joined for some time as a record label.

He blew up on the mainstream from 2012 through 2016 due to his unprecedented musical success. We can say yay and amen for him. He made something out of himself. In 2018, it seems like he wrote his second book.

Apparently he had a book before this. In his second book, which is titled, I Am Restored, How I Lost My Religion and Found My Faith, it seems like he gave his deconstruction history and exactly what took place and how he came out of it.

On the recent podcast, which is what we're going to be interacting with today, he explains what led him to the deconstruction, where he is now in his faith. He relates to those who are feeling the same way.

Ultimately, he concludes that the truth in understanding Jesus is really what freed him from what he calls Western religion. We'll find out exactly what he means by that as we go through this little podcast that he recently dropped.

I believe it came out about four months ago. Reasons why I want to go through this little podcast of his recently is because... Well, I have four reasons here, primarily. First reason is because Lecrae is an influencer.

He has a large professing Christian crowd that follows him. I literally used to be one of them, and there's a lot more. Some might not be like I am, who were called to the ministry and therefore didn't have a reason to leave.

They're probably still listening to Lecrae here and there because they don't think that his music is probably all that bad. I could say so much on Christian rap, but that's probably a different topic for a different day.

My first reason for wanting to do this critique is because Lecrae is an influencer. If genuine Christians are following him, we ought to know why. Second reason I have here is because, well, deconstructions are not new.

People deconstruct from all sorts of things. People deconstruct from religion. They go from being Christians to atheists, being Christians to New Age movement-type ordeals. People deconstruct from Christianity and become recovering fundamentalists.

They follow other religions. People deconstruct from family. They can live in a house that is filled with rules and burdens, and when they start to live on their own, they express their rebellion, and they live free from constraints.

People deconstruct from the things that they were taught when they were young and they're under their parents' household. People deconstruct from societal norms and history. We have seen the modern-day Black activist movement deconstruct and reconstruct history in light of liberal ideologies.

Reconstructions are not new. Third reason I want to go through this critique is because, what if this is Lecrae's testimony on deconstruction? What if it is a threat to biblical truth? I went through the podcast, and it seems like Lecrae hinted at saying that he well, he didn't hint, he said openly that he was looking for truth and meaning.

And I wondered, you know, was he looking to Jesus for that? Because Jesus defines truth. You know, he said that the truth will make you free if you continue in his word. He says he is the way, the truth, in the life.

You know, Ephesians 4 .21, which I sort of kind of based this podcast, naming it Truology on, is the truth is in Jesus. I'm sure you heard that in the intro. You know, his method, I believe, was ultimately wrong.

It seemed like he stepped out of Christianity, put the Bible away for some time, went to examine Eastern traditions of Christianity, and for some reason it led him to reject I guess, you know, westernized institutions that we call churches today, right?

He put the Bible away for a while to look for answers elsewhere. I don't really think that's how God, you know, designed, you know, investigations to go. I think our investigations should primarily be first done in Scripture through the lens of Scripture and by the person of the Holy Spirit in the Word of God.

I don't believe we should put it aside for some time. So, Lecrae seems to, you know, say that he did this, you know, put the Bible aside, just reject everything altogether and go looking for the truth elsewhere.

So, you know, I think that's a threat to biblical truth, and if it is, we ought to know about it and those that are following him because they're probably influencing to do the same thing. Put the Bible away, go experience the truth, quote-unquote, the truth, and figure it out on your own.

His views kind of correlate to the deconstruction of theological, you know, liberalism, you know. I'm not entirely sure what Lecrae's truths on, well, not truths, what Lecrae's convictions are on Scripture.

I don't know whether he absolutely believes in the deity of Jesus Christ or Trinity or the infallibility of Scripture. I don't actually know, but I think we can get a sense of what he actually believes about all those areas of theology through this podcast, so that's going to be helpful as well.

The fourth reason I have for, you know, why I want to do this critique on him is because many Christians, believe it or not, are actually dealing with the same thing that Lecrae is dealing with, and I think that's why he makes his appeal to various kinds of people in this podcast because, you know, depression is real.

Christians aren't immune to depression and doubt and struggles, right? You know, the Church might be the problem sometimes. You know, sometimes we don't address these things and our people wither away and, you know, they cut themselves off from the Church and they go seek truth and help somewhere else, and I think that's probably what Lecrae did and he's voicing it in what we're going to be talking about today, so I think it's important we look into that.

Some people get talked down to and they become discouraged, you know, they're not allowed to ask questions or explore their doubts and things like that. They get shut down very quickly and, you know, that's not really healthy and I think Lecrae, you know, well, I know Lecrae actually addresses that, so it's going to be important for us to listen to exactly what he says and comment on it.

You know, overly inflamed fundamentalism, you know, that, you know, imposes dress standards and music standards and societal restrictions can sometimes be, well, not sometimes, if it's overly inflamed, it's always, you know, it does more harm than good because you put all these burdens and legalistic, you know, boundaries upon people and, you know, you start to treat the world like it's so separate and distinct from you in such a way that, you know, you become so separatist in your ideals and Christian polity that, you know, it shows people that, you know, you really don't know anything about how life really works and, you know, and it's, I'm sure, you know, as we'll go through this, you'll see Lecrae kind of voicing a little bit of that.

So, I hope you'll tune in with me to continue to understand exactly why we're doing, you know, this critique today. So, in conclusion, you know, we should be, we should take deconstruction seriously. We shouldn't laugh about it, we should take it very seriously.

We shouldn't wave our hands at it like, oh, people who deconstruct aren't really Christians in the first place or, no, we should take it seriously because many of those we call our brethren are affected by what seems to be, you know, persuasive, a persuasive way of dealing with internal struggles.

Depression, loss of purpose, stressful demands and hurt, people are dealing with these things and we need to have an answer. If we do not understand the exodus around us, you know, the mass migration of people leaving churches and why it's happening, then we may continue to perpetuate the problem.

We don't want to be one-sided. We don't want to be negative, narrow, proud, you know, ignorant, but we want to engage our cultural trends with biblical truth and grace so our souls and the souls of others can be rescued from error.

So, with that being said, I want to tell you what we're going to do today. So what we're going to do is we're going to walk through this portion of Lecrae's podcast. It's just audio, obviously. This is an audio podcast.

You can't watch anything. So you're going to listen. I'm going to play some clips and segments from Lecrae's podcast and we're just going to give commentary and you know, just interact with what he says.

Now, I want to note that, you know, some of what Lecrae says in this podcast is not totally off. You could probably agree with some of the things that he's saying. Maybe you've experienced it yourself.

So, you know, throughout this critique, I'm going to be agreeing here and there with some of the things that he says. Just like we wouldn't disagree with the Pope of Rome if he said the sky is blue, neither should we disagree with Lecrae when he says something that's actually right.

Right? We're going to do we're not going to do the whole video, obviously, because I think the whole thing is like an hour long. You know, I think this episode is going to be an hour long myself, but you know, we're just going to interact with several portions that I've selected out that I think really bring out and communicate his actual intentions.

So with that being said, let's get into it.

Lecrae on Deconstruction and Finding Jesus

You're deconstructed.

I deconstructed around around 2016. Yeah, 2016. I feel like it was like I was I was struggling in 2016. By 2017, I was out. I was just I'm done, you know, with this whole particular thing. And a lot of it had to do with a lot of backlash from it's a long journey.

I mean, that's a whole conversation within itself. You know what I mean? Like, but it's a long journey. And I love sharing how I got there and how I overcame it. And I understand when people are de-churched or they're just not interested.

I get it. And I'm like, hey, man, walk with me. You know, walk with me. Like, here's a step in the journey of like processing what you want to do with faith. Like, here's a step in that space where you got somebody who understands, who's not trying to berate you, who's not trying to say, how dare you?

You know, who's just saying, listen, I understand. I understand why you want to walk away. I understand why you did walk away. And I did, too. But, you know, I went on a journey and I found that Jesus is worth it.

Now, some of the infrastructures that people have built around Jesus should be burned to the ground. But, Jesus is absolutely worth it.

So, in this segment, it seems like he is saying because he's gone through deconstruction and he can understand why some people who have been de-churched feel the way that they do. And he makes the appeal saying, you know, walk with me, as if he can give some advice and solutions to the corruptions and hypocrisy that's been experienced.

But, you know, I like how he says, you know, Jesus is worth it at the end. And I commend him for that because most people who deconstruct from their faith usually stay away from Christianity. They never necessarily return.

And, you know, if Lecrae had gone through this tough time in his life and he's realized that I should probably still follow Christ and not live in sin, then I think we should commend him for that. Nevertheless, I would ultimately like to know what he means by Jesus.

Because, you know, the Scripture does tell us that there is such a thing as another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel. We see these in cults like Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. You know, in my personal life, you know, in my earlier walk as a Christian, you know, I believe just about anyone who said they were a Christian.

You know, this is one of the reasons why I used to listen to charismatic preachers. I had no discernment in my earlier Christian walk. I couldn't really tell the difference between Voddie Bockham and T .D. Jakes.

To me, they were just both Christians and, you know, if you said, if you named the name of Christ, I just believed you and I didn't ask any questions. Nowadays, if you tell me, you know, while I'm out in street evangelism that you're a Christian, I have some questions for you.

You know, what do you mean by Jesus? And like I mentioned earlier, we don't necessarily know what Lecrae's theological convictions are in terms of the nature of Christ himself, but, you know, he seems to be making his appeal here that, hey, he's able to help and advise those that have deconstructed in the past and to, you know, lead them to a way, lead them to a solution that is healthier than what they have gotten before.

At the end, he says, things that have been built around Jesus should be burned to the ground. Now, I agree, only if what he means is like a business-centered institution like what we see in like Kenneth Copeland or Joe Osteen or even in a smaller local level pastors who just do things for money and church is just seen as a business and, you know, tithes and offerings is really the push.

If he means something like a socially disconnected institution, like something that is just so religious that it has no external significance, then yeah, I believe that should be burned to the ground.

But if he means like formal structure, like just because there's order in a church that it should be burned to the ground, absolutely not. I think we need pastoral leadership and singing and sermons and Sunday worship because those are things that God has instituted for our benefit to be able to, you know, be the body of Christ correctly, right?

You know, if he's really just saying that, you know, like a Bible-focused church that is so rigorous in its Christian faith through explicit devotion to Scripture as absolute, then no, we shouldn't burn those things to the ground.

You know, just because we don't look like the early poor church that used to gather in houses in the first century today because of our joyous modern-day efficiencies like, you know, air conditioning and indoor plumbing doesn't mean we should burn those things to the ground.

So I honestly would like to know what he means by Jesus and exactly what he actually means by burn, you know, those kinds of things that have been built around Jesus to the ground. But in anywho, I want to continue in this next segment to just, it seems like in this next segment, he's answering the question, you know, is it okay to love Jesus and not go to church?

So let's take a listen here to see what he says.

Church, Fellowship, and the Meaning of Hebrews 10:25

Is it okay to love Jesus and not go to church? Alright, so church as an institution in America.

Is not.

The thing that God was talking about in the Scriptures, right? Or the institution that we see in a lot of the world, right? Church is a community, is a body of people. It is not an institution that has oratory and a stage and music and, you know, just the whole, like, theatrical style of it is not, like, that's not an ancient prescription.

That's more of a current phenomenon than it is this ancient prescription of this, like, theatrical oratory style.

So, it seems like he's defined church here as a body of people, which is relatively true. The Greek word for church does mean assembly of the people. It also means congregation, right? He said church is not an oratory, like a theatrical stage, you know, with music performance, and to be honest, I could agree with that because, you know, it's not a capitalistic, consumer-driven thing.

It's not what Benny Hinn does on Sundays. It's not what Joyce Myers does, right? Church is the body of Christ. It's the collective assembly of believers come to worship the one true God and that expresses itself in various means.

It's local. It's active and I would really like to know what he means exactly by not oratory because, you know, if he's talking about, you know, self-help lectures with psychology, you know, things that you see in modern churches today that aren't really churches, you know, then, yeah, it's not an oratory where one man just gives, you know, a lecture and loads of information about how to think better, right?

But a sermon is by nature oratorical, right? It's biblical to preach and speak from the pulpit. I mean, the Apostle Paul did this, you know, in Acts 13 after the reading of the Scripture was done. It says here that one of the Jewish leaders approached Paul and he said, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.

Then Paul stood up and beckoning with his hand, Men of Israel and ye that fear God, give audience. So here's Paul not objecting to the opportunity to give an oratorical, biblical preaching message, right?

Here he is getting ready to convince those that are in attendance that Jesus is the Christ, that the Old Testament law cannot save. You must repent and believe, right? You know, when he says this is not an ancient prescription, I wonder exactly what he truly means by that because pastoral preaching is a gift.

Just because the beauty and artistic appearance looks different doesn't mean that it's not fundamentally synonymous to first century worship. If this is elemental to his deconstruction, then it seems like Lecrae was off from the beginning.

I mean, it's understandable to see the modernized money-making business portraying itself as a religious institution today, but that should prompt us to have devotion first to the Bible, relying on God to direct us, not forsaking it, right?

Experiencing sin for a season is not an excuse to put down or replace meaningful economy where the Bible is present and believers are coming together for the worship of God. Doing outside research and then bringing those ideals into critiquing your views of the Bible, I don't think that really works.

Anyways, it seems very interesting what Lecrae's views are actually on church is, and I think we could continue to learn from exactly what he's trying to say here. So let's continue to take a listen.

We see people showing up on Sunday to come to a play or a Broadway presentation. They're disconnected from one another. There's not really genuine fellowship. You don't know if you'll see the same people from week to week.

There's no real connectivity or genuine relationship. So a lot of churches, institutions have had to create these things called community groups, hoping to facilitate some community. But that even becomes awkward because now you're forcing people to connect and jive together instead of an authentic way of living amongst each other.

And so I get it.

So it seems here like he's addressing what his views on church is really supposed to be and the fact that church doesn't really seem that real because people seem to assemble together every week and really don't know each other.

But why is that? It could be because of this large consumer-based issue, which Lecrae seems like he's aware of. It could also be because people are merely religious. There's so many nominal Christians today.

I'm a Christian because that's the context in which I grew up. And they don't know Christ at all. That's not a body. So you just have a bunch of people that just do this because that's what they're used to.

And they don't really care about getting to know each other in biblical love because, well, they don't believe in Scripture truly in their heart. It hasn't really transformed them, so they don't really act that way.

It could also be because of what is being taught. Maybe there's just people that are under weak emotional preaching, superficial theology, this emphasis on individualism. We live in the West and so much secularity inside of the church that the church congregation is not developmentally Christian or Christ-like.

It's still about itself. The programs that force fellowship, as he seems to mention here, are actually a result of the fact that there's no word of God being fed to people. Therefore, they can never really know what unity in the Spirit really is like.

And if they don't know what the unity of the Spirit is like, then they can't have a proper understanding of the Lordship and Headship of Jesus Christ over the church and, for that matter, what the church is really supposed to be like.

In Western North America, there's two prominent views competing right now on what the church is supposed to be like. You either hold the perspective that the church is really a bomb shelter, which means it's the place you go to every week to retreat from the world.

You go in and you get the renewal you need so that you can go back out into the world and endure. The other view is that the church is more like an ammo depot. It's the place that you stop in to get what's necessary, so you reload and you go back out to conquer and transform for Christ.

Either of those views really just depends upon your eschatological views, but that's a different topic for another day. You see, in this segment that we just listened to, he also says that the church is so program-centered instead of having love-filled disciples.

I do agree with that because in Ephesians 4, it does say that ministers are given to the church as gifts to the church so that it can grow in maturity in Christ with biblical and spiritual unity. I do disagree if what he's hinting at it rather should be is some kind of social justice cultural do-gooders club with no gospel proclamation because what we've seen in history is that theological liberalism has ultimately rejected doctrine for the sake of unity and we ultimately don't want that.

I get it, but in a sense, we're like exiles. When the church was exiled, when they were scattered amongst the world, they just had to meet at somebody's house and get together and get through in the text and make it happen.

If you go to China, you're not going to see you know, St. Emmanuel's Baptist Church. You're going to see people in an apartment getting together on the low, underground and it's still effective and I know because I've been there and I've done it, right?

But man, honor the Lord, you know? Honor God. It's not about like, oh man, I haven't been to the institution with a good speaker.

It's kind of laughable because, you know, I don't really think saint and baptist should go on a church name but it seems like he's basically arguing here that the homestyle kind of church is really the real church that Jesus intended and this kind of leads me to think that this kind of logic and failed analysis of history might lead into, you know, the idea that the church is never really supposed to be innovative meaning there's supposed to be no big buildings or developments, you know, and that there's no need for modern day efficiencies, maybe like cars and boats and radio stations and television.

I mean, I'm sure he doesn't necessarily mean that or would go that far but I mean, if he continues to think the way that he does in these comments, then he's not very far from those ideals because there are people who do believe that.

But how can we avoid the pitfalls that he's actually talking about, though? How can we avoid the pitfalls of modern western culturalism? Well, first of all, through scriptural worship worship that is God-centered and comes out of the Bible and teaches us to conform to the Word of God and His holiness.

We can also avoid these pitfalls through the biblical mandate of evangelism. Instead of approaching people with this happy, sappy, sissified Jesus-loves-you gospel presentation we can begin with what the apostles began with.

You know, Jesus has been divinely established as both Lord and Christ, repent and believe. We can avoid this through the cultural impact of Christ which is to transform the culture because Christ is above the culture He's not apart from it.

He is not the Christ of culture. He is above it. Culture is supposed to be directed towards Him. We can stay alert also on cultural trends and mantras and political issues and perspectives because we're not just called to know what we believe but we're supposed to be aware of what those around us believe so that we can correctly refute them.

He also mentions that we should honor God and honestly that makes me a little uncomfortable only because when you don't actually define what that means it leaves the individual to define it himself. You know, it is impossible to honor God unless you have a corporate body assembling together.

Now obviously this is not the first century where we just gather in whosoever's house. This is the 21st century where we you know, Christianity is no longer an illicit religion. We actually have the ability to buy property and designate that space and reserve it for the discipling of those that are in Christ.

No church is a legitimate church unless it has ordained leaders, structure and liturgy. Just saying honor God is very mystical. You might as well just say, you know, follow your heart. Whatever you feel like, you know, God has defined church to be that's what it is.

You know, this produces isolated Christians and this cultural Jesus that we have seen just, you know, minimize evangelism focus on the biblical mandate and what, you know, church is really supposed to be like as it is defined in the New Testament.

When I'm saying deconstruction, well, I'll say this, when most millennials say deconstruction, what they're saying is they have decided to tear down their belief system and many of them are saying, hey, what does life without Jesus look like?

What is morality? What does marriage, all these particular things look like. If I do away with this faith that I had in Jesus that's what is meant and I would say I did that as well. There are a lot of pitfalls for me in doing that that I can definitely get into but what I believe is healthy.

Deconstruction is keeping Christ as the foundation. He says He's the cornerstone and then tearing down these walls around Him that have been built by our societies and civilizations that have way more culture and tradition than they have truth in them.

So here we hear Lecrae saying basically, you know healthy deconstruction would necessitate keeping Jesus in the center and of course I can agree with that because the Bible says that the Bereans studied the scriptures daily to see if the things that were being said were true.

We need to keep Christ at the center when we're skeptical. He is the one that's, the Word of God is going to give us the guardrails for what we should and should not accept. People who don't necessarily have this form of quote-unquote healthy deconstruction, they won't know what is and what is not the real Jesus unless they are first immersed in the sanctifying truth of the Word of God.

You see what typically happens when people don't have some kind of boundaries to help them gauge and walk through things that might not necessarily be true is they drain into apostasy, into some form of skepticism and then they begin to doubt, they begin to mistrust and then they begin to disconnect and ultimately grow hard towards anything that doesn't seem to give them the feeling of freedom and on this point right here I believe you know Lecrae is, he's on point I would agree with what he just said in this segment but let's.

Continue to listen. Somebody may say don't forsake the you know the Hebrew says don't forsake the fellowship and what the society is telling you is you didn't go to church on Sunday. That's not what that means.

It means don't isolate yourself from people who love.

Jesus and love you. Well not exactly you see the reference he's noting here is actually Hebrews 10 .25 which is ultimately a warning towards those that are tempted to go back to the old covenant system.

Commentator Adam Clark on his commentary on the Bible in regard to this passage says the church was now in a state of persecution and therefore their meetings were most probably held in private for fear of persecution.

It seems as if some had deserted these meetings, they had given up these strengthening and instructive means and others were in danger of following their example. So it seems like this is directed towards potential apostates.

Hence the severity of the warnings. I mean the next verse literally says you know if we sin after that we've received the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin but a fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation which will consume the adversaries.

So it doesn't seem like this passage is really saying don't isolate yourself from people who love Jesus and love you. It seems like the true meaning is do not leave the new covenant means of grace the eternal high priest in the once for all sufficient sacrifice.

It doesn't.

Mean you didn't go to church on Sunday. You don't. That's not what that means. So that's what the culture has told you it meant and they're wrong. Get rid of it deconstruct all these walls with asbestos and and mold tear them down but stay on the foundation of Jesus and do your best to get back to the original intention of the scriptures the ancient Near East.

You know go back start looking at the Hebrew context of things.

I appreciate what Lecrae is trying to say here. He what he is suggesting we do is we do exegesis rather than eisegesis which you know exegesis means to lead out of the text what is actually being said.

Eisegesis is bringing outside ideas into the text that aren't actually being said in the text and there's a difference between the two because it determines what the interpretation will be right. Eisegesis is usually motivated by outside ideas and they warp the text into whatever those outside ideas want them to be.

Exegesis is plainly just expositing what it is actually said by the biblical author and I commend Lecrae and what he says and what he said earlier when he said that you know we should keep Jesus in the center of our you know skepticism so that way we can you know have a healthy deconstruction even though he admittedly said that he didn't do that at first and he did suffer for it.

I commend him for you know his confession there but you know when in his reference to you know keeping things in context as he references Hebrews 10 25 here I'm surprised that he actually didn't do the contextual thing in his interpretation because the overarching principle that we find in Hebrews 10 25 is stay faithful be present for the exhortation of biblical truths which are taught by those that are ordained to speak the word of God which prevent apostasy.

Another commentator that I found in regard to this passage says the command then is here to meet together for the worship of God and it is to and it is enjoined on Christians as an important duty to it.

It is implied also that there is a blame or fault where this is neglected. So is missing one service. Really you know all that bad well in context to Hebrews you know this was a sign of apostasy. Today the context isn't necessarily the same.

You know there's no persecution that would entice leaving church. I'm sure someone would disagree with that based on what you're actually making your observations from. But you know Lecrae's purpose originally was that you know and bringing this about was that Western society has made us believe that this means that you can't miss any church services or or or else you are compromising or something like that you know he says that we ought to deconstruct all of it but I have a question where does that actually stop.

You know what is defining these things you know you know he mentions that we should study context which is absolutely important but I find it kind of ironic how he didn't actually just do it just then.

We have a faith that's been handed down from the ancient Near East for generations and then we started instituting all these random things in it that were never meant to be. You got Constantine dabbling in it you got you know the Americans the all these different people throwing seasonings and spices in it that were never supposed to be there and then handing over to you like say here's Christianity.